Ships in the Night
by Nina of the Galaxy
Summary: College AU! Laurel and Barry are both heroes at night, and they're both obsessed with the hero in each others city. They finally meet at a seminar for Law and Criminology students about heroes, but they don't know that the hero they're obsessed with is standing right in front of them.


"I'm only gonna be gone a few days, so Marianne is gonna come over," She said as she packed her things into her suitcase, "You like Marianne, remember?" She shouted to her father as she pulled out some clothes.

Quentin stuck his head in. "I don't know why you insist I need a babysitter. I'm going to be fine," He promised.

She shook her head. "Well, I just want to be sure. Marianna is gonna make sure you eat and go to your AA meetings. It's gonna be good." She promised as she kissed him on the cheek. "Trust me, if you can do this, it'll be good for all of us, back on the path of normalcy," She smiled.

He chuckled. "That what you told yourself every time a camera was in your face?" He asked.

It struck a nerve. They never talked about it. They never talked about Tommy and Oliver, because it always lead to a fight. It lead to them not speaking except when she was peeling him off the bars and being clinical with him. She didn't want to talk about it now. She shook her head. "Doesn't matter. What matter is you're getting better and I have to be off to my seminar in New York City. This is a big one." She told him, trying not to let her voice crack.

She got off the plane and smiled as she saw Iris West. "Well, if it isn't the devil in heels herself, seriously heels on an airplane?" She asked as she kissed Laurel on both cheeks.

Laurel smiled. "You never know when you're gonna be surprised by something or someone. Always have to look your best," She said and nodded her head.

Iris didn't know how she could do it anyway. "Well, come on. You are going to finally meet Barry. You're gonna love him. He's here for that seminar, the heroes and vigilantes one."

Laurel nodded. "I'm here for that one too. It's good for public justice law degrees. And I had a little extra money," She told Iris. That money she'd worked and paid for it. Stupid cameras and photographers. Least she could do was tell her side, make her money off of it.

Iris took her hand and walked her through the airport, "Well come on, we are going to the New York Public Library," She said as she pulled Laurel into a cab and smiled.

"So what's going on with you?" She asked Iris as the cab took off from LaGaurdia and into the streets of New York City.

Iris shook her head. "Honey, I am more interested with what is going on with you. I mean you've been distant. I mean I know the whole Oliver thing couldn't have been easy, but we didn't see you and your dad at the National Police Officer's ball. That's a big thing. You guys love to do that. And you could have met Barry this year, we finally managed him to get him to go." She said as punched Laurel lightly.

Laurel laughed to keep herself from the thought of it. The National Police Officer's ball. That. She forgot about that. "We were busy this year." She told Iris. "I finally convinced him to go to AA."

"Good," Iris said. "You're a strong woman. I don't think I could have done that on my own." She told her as she looked out of the window. "Look at this place, man. This is a lot different than Central City." She gasped.

Laurel fidgeted with her fingers as she heard Iris gasp about Central City. "So how's my mom?" She asked, without looking up.

Iris looked at her friend. "Barry took her class. You know it looks like she's settling in." She said as she looked back from the window and to Laurel, who looked heartbroken over the fact that her mom left her. Her mom left her to deal with everything when it was really bad.

Laurel nodded and took a breath. That was what she did. That's what the doctors said to do. When there was extra stress, nod and take breath. Nothing can ever be as bad as it sounded like it was gonna be. "I'm glad that she's settling in. She hasn't called, so you know, I don't know, but it's good, you and Barry keeping an eye on her."

Iris nodded. "Barry thought it was the least he could do." Iris said and kissed Laurel's forehead and let them finish their journey in relative quietness.

When they got to the reading room, she smiled. "Barry Allen," She chuckled as she put her arms around him for a hug. "God, you've grown up to be so handsome. Joe is always talking about you and how smart you are," She smiled as she put her bag down and sat in one of the chairs.

"Well, the good doctors have been good to me," Barry rambled as he sat down in one of the chairs and looked at her. "You look beautiful." He remarked as he nodded. "So are you excited about the seminar?" He asked. "It looks like it's' gonna be pretty cool. You know there gonna have some really cool criminology classes."

Laurel nodded. "Yeah, I mean, it's gonna be some class. You know these heroes are popping up everywhere?" She asked him. "I heard there was even one saving people in Central?"

"What about Starling? I heard that there was this girl in a black mask beating up rapists." He said, impressed.

Laurel chuckled. He had no idea that it was her. She looked over to him and looked away, "That's not how this works and you know it, Allen. You didn't answer my question about the hero in Central City, so you don't get an answer about the woman in black." She told him as she impossibly smiled.

"Oh, so there's a way this works now?" He asked. She simply raised her eyebrow and he looked down at his feet and smiled too. "Yeah, there is a guy. Or at least that's what the newspapers are saying. Quite frankly, I think it's all kind of hokey. I mean what do we have that really needs a hero?" He asked, with a laugh. "Now you."

She shrugged. "Yeah, there's this blogger who chronicles this Lady in Black who's helping sexual harassment and rape victims. It's pretty incredible. I mean you just see her hug these girls." She told him and the electricity between was different.

Iris rolled her eyes. "Get a room guys,"

Laurel's eyes bugged out. "We're...we're not...flirting," She stammered. The thought was incredulous.

Iris looked to Barry who looked just as wigged out by the thought. "We're just prepping for the seminar," He insisted as he waved his hands in the air. "I mean that woman in black is amazing. I mean, Laurel hasn't even talked about the time that this girl has put child abusers in their place. This woman is unstoppable." He said with this starry look in his eye.

Laurel grinned as she took out a folder and opened it. "How about this guy in red?" She asked. "He, according to one of his watch blogs, and he has about a dozen, he stopped a tornado. Which sounds impossible, but they had pictures of him standing next to the storm and then one of him without a scratch, no tornado. And the metadata says they were taken less than a minute apart. That should not be possible. But the data doesn't lie."

"You guys could not be more perfect for each other." Iris laughed. Her phone went off and she looked at it. "Look, I would totally love talking about your hero vigilante thing, but Matt just texted this address for this coffee place he wants me to meet him at. And I have a really good feeling about this one." She said.

Laurel nodded. "Go, we'll take the subway to NYU." She said. "Talk about vigilantes some more. Tell Matt I said Hey." She said and kissed Iris on the cheek, leading her out of the library.

"So you guys talk about Matt?" Barry asked as he scratched the back of his head.

"We talk about a lot of things. Things that include you and Matt," Laurel said as she text her dad. She looked over to him, "What are you jealous?" She asked, with a little bit of a chuckle.

He shook his head. "No, to be honest, I don't think Iris really sees me that way. And why would she? I mean we've known each other our whole lives." He shook his head. "No, to be honest, I was just wondering what you guys talked about. I mean she's told me so much about you, but I feel like I barely know you. Even though we've talked a couple of times." He said, softly.

Laurel shrugged. "I think you me better than you think you do, Mr. Allen." She said. "I mean obsessed with Vigilantes from each other's cities. It's gotta be a sign, right?" She asked him.

"Yeah," He said, out of breath. "I guess so."

He hadn't thought about it that way. She had his pictures after all. Pictures of him saving people and she talked about the guy in the red and the watch blogs with such passion. She had absolutely no idea who it was, but she just accepted what was in front of her. It had been a long time since he found someone like that.

He picked up his bag and she picked up hers and they headed out of the reading room, leaving some people who were actually in that room to read. He looked at her. "Do you think that we're living our lives vicariously through the watch blogs?" He asked her.

She shook her head. "No, I think having heroes, real heroes out there, it reminds us why we do what we do. Forensics and courtrooms, those are places that anyone can train to be a hero in, right?" She asked him.

He blushed. How little they knew, the man in red and the woman in black. They stood next to each other, inspiring each other every day. "Yeah," He told her. "Invisible heroes." He said as he took her hand and walked her to the subway.

They went the whole way to NYU like that, hand in hand, it felt weird, but also sort of nice, like they had skipped all the awkwardness and gone to the best bits.

A chipper student named Lena sat at a table covered with a NYU banner and sign in forms. "Hi y'all, welcome to NYU's seminar, Heroes, Vigilantes, and the Legal System, where y'all from?" She asked.

Laurel chuckled to herself. "You're not from here, Lena, are you?" She asked.

"No, Miss, I am not. This is my first year in the north. I'm from the great state of Texas. But I'm happy to see you here, where are you from?" She asked as she blinked like a baby doll.

Laurel signed in. "Starling City Law School." She said.

"And you, sir?" Lena asked.

Barry shook his head. "Central City University." He said as he signed his name onto the piece of paper that was provided on her big able.

Lena gave them a tote bag full of stuff, "Y'all have a good time at the seminar now, y'all," She said and Laurel couldn't help but laugh at the woman as they left to roam the halls.

"She was being nice," Barry insisted.

Laurel shook her head. "Please I know a woman with money when I see one. I've been around the rich long enough and there is no way that she should be at that table with that accent like that unless she did something absolutely filthy." Laurel said as she shook her head.

Barry shook her head. "So do you think we're gonna have any brushes with some of the New York heroes?" He asked.

Laurel thought about it for a minute, "I don't plan on doing anything that crazy. You?" She asked him.

"Probably not," He said as he smiled to her. "So where are you staying?" He asked.

She pointed over to the Marriot down the street. "There," She said, "But I actually wanted to explore around here a little bit," She told him with a shrug.

He nodded. "Right, well, I'll see you at the hotel then. Iris and I are in 323 and 324." Barry practically tripped over his own two feet before looking where he was going. "I'll see you." He said.

"I'm in 328," She blushed and went the other way and snickered to herself. That boy was cute, even if it seemed like she would have to save him like a kitten in a tree. That didn't make her automatically pull away though, so he did something right.

Laurel saw him sitting there and smiled. "Well, aren't you talk of the town," She said as she looked at the big circle of people that formed around him.

He patted the seat next to him, indicating she should sit and she did. "We were just talking about NYU's guardian angel from last night, did you hear about it?" He asked her.

She shook her head and smiled. "No, I walked around last night, but it was pretty quiet." She told him.

"It's great," His whole face lit up and he became suddenly very animated. "This woman, dressed in all white, and carrying a crossbow, she comes out of nowhere and attacks this drunk frat boy who is pushing himself onto this woman that obviously doesn't want him and is desperately trying to get away while he gets more aggressive. It was just amazing," He said.

Laurel looks down at her hands, a little bruised, but shook her head, and wrapped her hands around her paperwork. "Crazy night," She told him. "Kind of sounds like the woman in black. But she's in Starling," Laurel said.

"Yeah, sort of," Barry said, slightly mesmerized. "I think the woman in black would like this woman in white. But I don't think they're the same person. The woman in black, she doesn't carry a crossbow." He told her. "Besides, the woman in black just oozes something."

Laurel shrugged. "Whatever, I saw this hero guy last night who stopped a student getting hit by a drunk driver," She said.

Barry blushed and looked away. "What makes you think this guy's so real? I mean could have been a hallucination?" He asked her.

"Because I saw him. And I got a picture of him on my phone," She told him confidently. "Bet you don't have any pictures of the woman in white," She said. She'd been confident that there were no cameras around when she went out. You couldn't help people talking, but cameras were another thing entirely.

Still, when she saw the guy saving students, she knew he had to be documented for this seminar. She had to show him off. She showed him the picture. It was a little blurry and you couldn't really see his face. It was obscured by a mask, but what you could see was that he pushed a car backwards to help this poor girl who deserved nothing more than to live.

He smiled at the picture. He'd been testing his powers in Central City, but he wanted to try it in the big city. Sure, Central was fun, but he had freaks to deal with there. He wanted to see if he could after real crime. And sure, maybe a drunk driver wasn't the hardest thing to go after, but he saved someone in the big city. He saved someone who would have just been another statistic. And Laurel had been there to get his picture. And she didn't even know it was him. He didn't know what she would say if she knew it was him. She'd probably call him a freak. He knew he sometimes felt like that, but he liked her. And he didn't want her to think that about him. So he kept quiet.

He took out his laptop and grinned at her. That was a good picture of him. She didn't even know it, but that was him. The man in red and that man in her picture, same guy, same him. "I'll see your blurry phone camera picture and raise you, what will no doubt be lauded as an iconic picture for the history books, when they start talking about citizen heroes." He said as he turned it around and showed her, what he didn't know was a picture of herself, holding a bow, looking regal.

Thea had told her to try archery. That it would really change her life. And it did. She looked so menacing with that bow. But Barry looked at that picture like she was a goddess. Maybe that was why she did it. Because she looked both ethereal and vaguely threatening. The guy practically pissed his pants when he saw her very sharp arrow pointed at his junk. She had shot him in the thigh, a much less painful spot, but still painful enough for him to remember the lesson.

"Where did you get this?" She asked him, galled that this picture had gotten out.

He chuckled. "You weren't the only one in the presence of superheroes last night." He told her.

She nudged his shoulder and grinned. "You were holding out on me, Allen," She teased. "So any idea who this woman in white is?" She asked him, a little eager to know if she was even a suspect in any of this.

He shook his head. "Whoever she is, she's amazing. And she's new. So she's probably local. I mean a woman like that who wasn't, it would be extremely rare." He told her.

"Yeah, I get it." Laurel smiled. He had absolutely no idea. She liked the woman in white persona, but it didn't quite fit. Black was more her color. Always had been. "So, I have a Superhero Registry Pro Con lecture in about half an hour, you want to come with?" She asked him.

He nodded. "Only if you tell me who this guy you saw last night, what's your guess about him," He said as he got up.

She shrugged. "Don't know, but he was kind of buff," She said to him as they walked out together.

He liked that she didn't know and the she wouldn't know. She described him as buff, which would not be the first word he used to describe himself. But he needed to protect her, he thought, her and Iris. Those were his first priorities. Everyone else came second.

"So what side of the lecture are you going into it on?" He asked.

She didn't even have to think about it. "Definitely con. Superhero registry seems like a terrible idea. And a way for the government to militarize people who may or may not want to be militarized or put on a list." She told him.

"You've thought about this a lot," He remarked.

She looked at him. "And you haven't?" She asked him.

He shook his head. "Oh, no I have. I just, I never thought I would meet someone who would take it as seriously as you do." He grinned as they entered the lecture hall and sat down together.


End file.
